Sunday, August 15, 2010

Ground Zero Mosque an Issue

“As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country,” Obama said at the dinner. “That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”

I agree, it's an important right for ALL Americans. But apparently some under-educated people don't think so:

Nationally, 68 percent of Americans said they opposed building the mosque two blocks from the target of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in an Aug. 6-10 poll conducted for CNN.

Maybe they are not aware of this:

Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said the federal government shouldn’t put any pressure on local officials regarding the mosque. There is a mosque in the Pentagon, also a target of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which hasn’t drawn any criticism, Nadler said.

I worship as I please every Sunday. I want other people to be free to do the same, at whatever place they choose. It's not like only white Christian men were killed on 9/11, so why the opposition? Maybe because of this:

While Republicans may not mention the mosque in campaign ads, they likely will include it as part of a larger narrative that Obama is “outside the mainstream,” said John Feehery, a Republican strategist and president of the Feehery Group political consulting firm.

It's being used by fear-mongering Republicans to push their candidates. How ugly, how sad, and how disrespectful to the people who lost their lives that day.

2 comments:

This has been driving me nuts all weekend. I pride myself on seeing both sides of a story or issue but I just don't understand the logic of the opposition to this. I think I'll be blogging about this issue today.